908 research outputs found
Building local capacity in operational research: a case study in Nepal and India.
No full textA programme of mentor support and training has enabled eye teams in Nepal and India to carry out research to improve their own delivery of eye care services
Evaluating health research capacity building: An evidence-based tool
No full textBates and colleagues describe the development of a tool to assess capacity-building programs in health research, which they used in Kumasi, Ghana
Opportunity costs of trade-related capacity development in Sub-Saharan Africa
No full textIncludes bibliographical references.Recent studies have documented the impact of institutions and infrastructure development on trade flows. This paper studies these issues in the context 010n90in9 trade-related capacity building initiatives and evaluates the opportunity cost of different trade-related capacity building policy mixes. Trade-related technical assistance and capacity building was recognized in 2001 by the World Trade Organisation Doha Ministerial Declaration as a core element of the development dimension of the multilateral trading system and commitments were set out in those areas. The extentof trade-related technical assistance and capacity building to help developing and least developed countries participate more efficiently in international trade has increased by 50% between 2001 and 2004. The purpose of this thesis is to address the question of whether the weights assigned to different components of trade-related capacity building in existing trade-related capacity building programmes are economically justified. To do this the paper evaluates the opportunity costsof different trade-related capacity building policy mixes with specific reference to Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. We use a number of variables from both theoretical and empirical literature to come up with composite indicators for trade-related institutions, infrastructure and human capital. The analysis is also informed by interviews with trade experts in Geneva as well as a review of relevant background documents. In the empirical analysis we use 2005 trade patterns for a data set of 117 countries of which 24 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Making use ofa gravity equation augmented with trade-related capacity building variables we run a series of Heckman's two-step selection regressions and estimate the marginal impacts of these trade-related capacity building indicators on trade as measured by value of total exports. To evaluate opportunity costs. we do policy simulations and estimate how much trade flows will be increased under various policy scenarios with respect to improved trade-related capacity building indicators in Sub-Saharan Africa. We examine scenarios that focus on improved institutions. infrastructure and human capital as they move in the direction of comparability with the rest of the world. The world's average level is used as the baseline for each of these composite indicators in the policy simulations. The results show that trade flows exhibit different levels of sensitivity to different trade-related capacity building policy options with the exporter's infrastructure being the most significant with an average elasticity of approximately 3.0. The findings also suggest that complementing improvements in the quality of human capital and infrastructure will provide the greatest bilateral trade flow benefit to Sub-Saharan Africa; while non-Sub-Saharan Africa countries gain the most from complementing infrastructure and institutions. Such a finding contradicts the current focus of ongoing TReB programmes that put emphasis on human capital development only. Building on both Grossman and Helpman (1991),s trade model and Barro (1990) s' growth model, the paper argues that the theoretical propositions are inadequate to address the dynamics associated with trade-related capacity building policy. The paper further argues that analyzing the impact of rReB using these standard frameworks underestimates the impact since policy dynamics are not addressed in that framework. This could contribute to explaining why there has not been consensus in the trade-growth empirical literature, with some authors finding a positive and significant impact of trade on growth, while others argue that the impact is not significant Hence, the paper proposes improvements in the specification of the standard growth model to take into account policy dynamics, specifically assumptions regarding substitutability among TRee investments
Public private sector partnerships in an agricultural system of innovation: concepts and challenges
No full textThe potential for public private sector partnerships is likely to grow. However, despite a number of high profile success stories, promoting partnerships has proved more difficult than many assumed. This paper argues that such partnerships need to be viewed in the framework of an innovation system and a development scenario where networks of agro-enterprises and intermediary organisations will underpin rural development and poverty reduction. This view helps reveal the importance of embedding public research organizations within these local networks and highlights that constraint to building partnership is usually institutional in nature – i.e. it relates to habits practices and patterns of trust. The paper concludes by suggesting that efforts should be focused on building social capital in agricultural innovation systems and cautions that this should be done in contextually relevant ways.Public private sector partnerships, innovation systems, institutional change, capacity building, social capital
PartiSim: A multi-methodology framework to support facilitated simulation modelling in healthcare
No full textDiscrete event simulation (DES) studies in healthcare are thought to benefit from stakeholder participation during the study lifecycle. This paper reports on a multi-methodology framework, called PartiSim that is intended to support participative simulation studies. PartiSim combines DES, a traditionally hard OR approach, with soft systems methodology (SSM) in order to incorporate stakeholder involvement in the study lifecycle. The framework consists of a number of prescribed activities and outputs as part of the stages involved in the simulation lifecycle, which include study initiation, finding out about the problem, defining a conceptual model, model coding, experimentation and implementation. In PartiSim four of these stages involve facilitated workshops with a group of stakeholders. We explain the organisation of workshops, the key roles assigned to analysts and stakeholders, and how facilitation is embedded in the framework. We discuss our experience of using the framework, provide guidance on when to use it and conclude with future research directions
An examination of administrative capacity to implement development programmes in South Africa
No full textThesis (Ph.D. (Political Studies))--University of Cape Town, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-241).Library also has copy on CD-ROM.This thesis examined the concept of administrative "capacity", which has been employed to critique the ability of public administrations to implement development programmes in South Africa. References to administrative capacity in South African academic discourse have generally treated the term as a concrete item, often translated as public sector organisations lacking the ability/capacity to respond to the increasing scale of development needs which accompanied the country's recent political transition. This emphasis has in turn raised questions about whether these bodies possess the requisite or sufficient capacity to carry out development activities, and where this is judged not to be the case, that efforts should be directed at acquiring this capacity, i.e. capacity building or strengthening. This thesis argued that this prevailing twofold interpretation of capacity was too narrow, because it did not adequately capture how the organisational and operational circumstances under which public sector bodies functioned, might influence their ability (in other words, capacity) to implement development programmes
Limits to civil service and administrative reform in a fragile and conflict affected situation: a case study of Afghanistan 2002-2012
No full textThis research examined the challenges, decisions, issues, and dilemmas facing the International Community (IC) in attempting to re-establish and rebuild public administration and other government institutions in a country that continues to suffer from instability and remains at high risk of further conflict. The research looks specifically at a subset of Public Administration Reform (PAR): Civil Service and Administrative Reform (CSAR). The research concludes that CSAR in a Fragile and Conflict Affected State (FCAS) such as Afghanistan is clearly a ‘wicked problem’ requiring innovative, iterative and adaptive responses by the IC over an extended time period. However, the IC treats CSAR in Afghanistan as a ‘tame’ problem simply framed in terms of ‘we are coming to build your capacity’, resulting in slow progress on public sector reform overall and little understanding of the relationship with overarching statebuilding and stabilisation objectives. Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of CSAR, IC support has fallen dramatically in recent years. The current approach to supporting CSAR in Afghanistan is therefore almost guaranteed to fail. The research calls for a new approach to PAR in these types of cases, one that recognises the severe limits to progress utilising existing approaches and structures rooted in Western notions of good government. A new approach goes beyond the overwhelming focus on capacity development; emphasises the importance of understanding what space exists for reform; recognises the need to pragmatically confront trade- offs between the competing objectives of reconciling stabilisation imperatives with wider considerations of ‘good governance’; and poses an alternative expanded framework for considering public administration, legitimacy, authority and representation in the government of an FCAS, partly as an organising framework but also as an aid to understanding the complexity of interrelated systems prevalent in an FCAS. The research also concludes that a great deal more independent academic research is required to understand how to make progress in Public Sector Reform (PSR), stabilisation and longer-term development that will help prevent countries slipping back into conflict
Strategic approaches to science and technology in development
No full textWatson, Crawford, and Farley examine the ways in which science and technology (S&T) support poverty alleviation and economic development and how these themes have been given emphasis or short shrift in various areas of the World Bank's work. Central to their thesis is the now well-established argument that development will increasingly depend on a country's ability to understand, interpret, select, adapt, use, transmit, diffuse, produce, and commercialize scientific and technological knowledge in ways appropriate to its culture, aspirations, and level of development. The authors go beyond this tenet, analyzing the importance of S&T for development within specific sectors. They present policy options for enhancing the effectiveness of S&T systems in developing countries, review previous experience of the World Bank and other donors in supporting S&T, and suggest changes that the World Bank and its partners can adopt to increase the impact of the work currently undertaken in S&T. The authors'main messages are: 1) S&T has always been important for development, but the unprecedented pace of advancement of scientific knowledge is rapidly creating new opportunities for and threats to development. 2) Most developing countries are largely unprepared to deal with the changes that S&T advancement will bring. 3) The World Bank's numerous actions in various domains of S&T could be more effective in producing the needed capacity improvements in client countries. 4) The World Bank could have a greater impact if it paid increased attention to S&T in education, health, rural development, private sector development, and the environment. The strategy emphasizes four S&T policy areas: education and human resources development, the private sector, the public sector, and information communications technologies.Public Health Promotion,Environmental Economics&Policies,ICT Policy and Strategies,Decentralization,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,ICT Policy and Strategies,Health Economics&Finance,Poverty Assessment,Agricultural Research
A Review of the Recent Contribution of Systems Thinking to Operational Research and Management Science
No full textThe systems approach, or systems thinking, has been intimately connected with the development of OR and management science initially through the work of founders such as Churchman and Ackoff and latterly through innovations such as soft systems. In this paper we have undertaken a review of the contribution that systems thinking has been making more recently, especially to the practice of OR. Systems thinking is a discipline in its own right, with many theoretical and methodological developments, but it is also applicable to almost any problem area because of its generality, and so such a review must always be selective. We have looked at the literature from both a theoretical and an applications orientation. In the first part we consider the main systems theories and methodologies in terms of their recent developments and also their applications. This covers: the systems approach, complexity theory, cybernetics, system dynamics, soft OR and PSMs, critical systems and multimethodology. In the second part we review the main domains of application: strategy, information systems, organisations, production and operations, ecology and agriculture, and medicine and health. Our overall conclusion is that while systems may not be well established institutionally, in terms of academic departments, it is incredibly healthy in terms of the quantity and variety of its applications
Strengthening capacity to improve nutrition
No full textA major premise of this paper is that the failure—or limited achievements—of many large-scale nutrition programs is very often a function of insufficient sustainable capacities within communities and organizations responsible for implementing them. Following a brief review of the various rationales for an intensified focus on capacity and capacity development, the paper examines the linkages between nutrition programming and capacity development processes before proposing a new approach to assessing, analyzing, and developing capacity. The ensuing sections then focus in more detail on the ingredients and influences of capacity at the levels of the community, program management, supporting institutions, and the government. Finally, the implications of a more proactive focus on strengthening nutrition capacity for donor modes of operation and support priorities are discussed.FCND ,Nutrition programs ,Capacity ,Sustainability ,
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